In less than three months, the York-Adams League contenders will be clearly separated from the pretenders.

Still, why wait for the games to be played? Where’s the fun in that?

Trying to forecast the football future is always an amusing diversion — for fans, players, coaches and, yes, especially the media.

That’s where this column comes in. It’s one attempt at gridiron prophecy.

Three months from now, it will likely best be used to wrap fish or line a bird cage (if you are actually reading the printed version). For online customers, it will simply fade into cyberspace obscurity, along with every other misguided prediction column.

That’s because prognosticating the actions of teenage boys is a notoriously difficult assignment. As a group, they can be mercurial. One week, they’ll flourish, the next week they’ll flop.

Of course, that’s why high school football is so entertaining.

Take the 2017 season, for instance. Who could’ve predicted that York High would go from 1-9 in 2016 to 9-2 and a Division I co-championshp in 2017? Or that Susquehannock would soar from 3-7 in 2016 to 8-3 and a Division II outright crown in 2017?

The answer would be practically no one, except for the true believers in the City of York and down Glen Rock way.

So, with that as background, here’s one feeble attempt to foresee the outcome of the 2018 Y-A football season, which starts Friday night:

Nyzair Smith returns for Dallastown after rushing for more than 2,000 yards in 2017. DISPATCH FILE PHOTO(Photo: The York Dispatch)

At York High, Dayjure Stewart is getting Division I looks and Rob Rideout is the returning D-I Defensive Player of the Year. Head coach Russ Stoner, the architect of last year’s stunning turnaround, is looking for even bigger things this year.

At Dallastown, Nyzair Smith is back after rushing for more than 2,000 yards and earning D-I Offensive Player of the Year honors. In addition, the Wildcats’ new head coach, Ron Miller, established himself as one of the league’s top leaders during his spectacularly successful stint at West York.

At Central York, the Panthers boast the league’s top returning quarterback in Cade Pribula, who has already committed to play at the Football Championship Subdivision level at Delaware. His coach, Josh Oswalt, has had the Panthers moving on an upward trajectory during his two years at the school.

At Red Lion, fullback/linebacker Eli Workinger is a returning All-D-I performer who figures to be the leader of a program that returns 14 starters and has enjoyed consistent success under head coach Jesse Shay, including 25 regular-season wins in the last three seasons.

The rest of the teams in the division (Northeastern, Spring Grove, South Western and New Oxford) are all coming off losing D-I records in 2017, and figure to struggle again in 2018, although Northeastern does have the talent to be this year’s surprise team.

So how does D-I shake out? It’s tempting to predict a four-way tie among York High, Dallastown, Red Lion and Central, but that would be the coward’s way out.

There appears to be four real contenders (York Catholic, Bermudian Springs, Littlestown and Delone Catholic) and four others scratching to reach the upper echelon (Hanover, Biglerville, York Tech and Fairfield).

York Catholic and Littlestown shared the D-III title in 2017, with Delone and Bermudian each a game back.

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Head coach Eric DePew has guided York Catholic to five straight District 3 championship games. DISPATCH FILE PHOTO(Photo: , The York Dispatch)

The Fighting Irish program has developed into a small-school power under head coach Eric DePew, reaching five straight District 3 title games.

Bermudian, Littlestown and Delone are all traditional D-III powers. The Eagles and Thunderbolts are led by two of the winningest coaches in the league in Jon DeFoe (130 wins at Bermudian in 19 seasons) and Mike Lippy (114 wins at Littlestown in 15 seasons).

Delone is coming off an 8-2 season and has a standout returning QB in Evan Brady. Bermudian (Chase Dull) and Littlestown (Jakob Lane) also return excellent QBs.

Bermudian, however, lost just four starters from last year’s 7-4 squad.

If any team is likely to be a surprise in 2018, it could be Hanover, coming off 19 wins in the last three seasons.